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From left: Susan Oliver as Vina, Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike and Meg Wyllie as The Keeper in "The Cage."CBS/Getty Images
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Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock and Peter Duryea as Lieutenant José Tyler on the planet Talos IV.CBS/Getty Images
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Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike.CBS/Getty Images
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Susan Oliver as Vina and Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike have an illusory picnic outside Mojave, Kirk's home.CBS/Getty Images
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Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock and Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike on the planet Talos IV.CBS/Getty Images
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The crew on the bridge of the USS Enterprise.CBS/Getty Images
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Michael Dugan as the Kalar warrior on Rigel VII.CBS/Getty Images
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From left: Anthony Jochim as Third Survivor, Leonard Mudie as Second Survivor and other survivors on the planet Talos IV.CBS/Getty Images
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Crew members in the transport room of the USS Enterprise.CBS/Getty Images
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Susan Oliver as Vina appearing as an Orion slave girl.CBS/Getty Images
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John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock.CBS/Getty Images
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The crew of the USS Enterprise being transported. From left: Peter Duryea as Lieutenant José Tyler, Adam Roarke as Communications Officer Garison, Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock and Ed Madden as the Enterprise Geologist.CBS/Getty Images
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Janos Prohaska as the Anthropoid Ape.CBS/Getty Images
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Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman J. M. Colt and Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike.CBS/Getty Images
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Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike and Susan Oliver as Vina at Rigel VII, in the Kandari sector.CBS/Getty Images
Though Star Trek celebrates its 50th anniversary on Thursday—the first episode to air on TV ran on Sept. 8, 1966—the show’s actual first episode is a bit older than that. The original pilot episode of Star Trek, titled “The Cage,” was completed in early 1965. As these stills from the episode show, it exhibits both striking similarities with and a number of differences from the series that ended up on television.
Most noticeably, the Captain of the USS Enterprise was Christopher Pike, portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter, instead of James Kirk. Hunter backed out of the show to pursue acting in films and passed away in 1969. And, though Mr. Spock was still portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the pilot, he was not the First Officer—that title went to a character known as Number One, portrayed by Majel Barrett. Concerning props, weapons in the pilot were referred to as “lasers,” and not “phasers.”
Written by Gene Roddenberry and directed by Robert Butler, the pilot was dismissed by NBC, where executives called it “too cerebral.” After being persuaded by Lucille Ball, whose Desilu Studios produced the pilot, the network ordered a second pilot episode. The original, which cost NBC over $600,000 to produce, was scrapped, except for some footage that was incorporated into a later episode. Shooting started for the second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” in July 1965. This episode was the first to feature William Shatner as Captain James Kirk. It eventually aired on Sept. 22, 1966 as part of the show’s first season. (A different episode, “The Man Trap,” was selected as the premiere.)
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“The Cage” was finally released on VHS in 1986 and aired on television in color in November 1988, with an introduction by Gene Roddenberry, as part of a two-hour Star Trek retrospective special hosted by Patrick Stewart.
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